Volcano Restaurant

The food was ok, not great not bad, just ok. The service was extreeeeeemly slow. At several points we assumed they had forgotten about us completely. We almost left, but it had really become comical at that point. I wouldn’t ever go back and the rest of the group said the same just because of how slow the service was, and it wasn’t a busy night the dining room was maybe half full when we arrived.

I enjoyed discovering this restaurant, and had no idea it had received some bad reviews. Other than the fact that it’s a bit pricey for my usual tastes, I had no complaints at all. We were seated in the back by the fishtank wall, visually pleasing and quieter than the front section. Food was prompt and delicious — we had the Dynamite Roll, Nut’s about Rolls (papaya, cream cheese, smoked salmon, and almonds) And Tuna Tatami. I liked the Nuts one best, but there were dozens more on the menu that looked enticing. It would be great to go with a group that enjoyed sharing bites of this and that.

Popped in for a quick lunch date with my mom before going to get our hair done.
The service was friendly and attentive (despite forgetting to fill out waters) but we were in the back at the raised tables across from the adorable private rooms.
I loved LOVED loved the kitty décor and giant see thru wall fish tank (with a hidden Nemo inside).
The atmosphere and décor was probably my fave out of all the YEG sushi spots I’ve tried to date!
The prices are a little higher here but the quality was really good and the presentations beautiful.
I wish I had a 3.5 option but I’ll go with 4 because it was so pretty inside!
We shared the Dynamite Roll, Nut’s about Rolls (papaya, cream cheese, smoked salmon, and almonds) And Tuna Tataki.
I noticed they offer SOY PAPER here if you prefer instead of seaweed for your rolls!
There are coupons in the SUTP coupon book as well if you have one of those.
The location is a little tricky as it’s on Gateway Blvd on the West side just before the Whitemud.
It’s right next door to Nandos if you know where that is :-)
I will definitely be back!

I’m a little surprised that this place isn’t highly rated — but I do think it’s a hit or miss depending on who you’re going with.
I went on a Saturday night with some friends and I thought it was a unique atmosphere. The staff are young and there’s a DJ mixing the hottest music on a Friday and Saturday night. Seems a bit odd for a Japanese /​Vietnamese restaurant, but maybe that’s what makes them unique. Once the drinks is flowing and food is coming, you’re in a great mood and feeling like you’re in a party without having to party.
As for the food, we ordered a little bit of everything. Sashimi, rolls, Vietnamese appies, Japanese tapas and ramen. We shared everything! We may have ordered about 12 different dishes and our bill was only $ 160 and we were stuffed.
Most notable dishes were the following: prawn tempura, sashimi, short rib and the spicy miso ramen was totally underrated as it was amazing!
Check it out if you’re in the area next time and be open to the idea of getting the party started. Might be perfect for a big birthday celebration here because of the private rooms in the back for 20 people and the live DJ.

Again, another fantastic evening at Volcano!
I had the Bo Kho and it was so awesome.
Service is excellent as usual.
Two thumbs way up.

I have been here for 2 times. The first visit I only try the Vietnam noodle and the second time only order the Japanese food.
For me I think the Vietnam food were awesome but the Japanese food were not good at all.
I think if this restaurant only do the Vietnam food that will be better.

My husband and I were looking forward to a great restaurant but we were left feeling like we paid for a meal that was more suited for Tokyo express. We expected the restaurant décor to be beautiful as this place is rather new, but we walked into wallpaper falling off the entrance walls, light bulbs Burt out and just a poor mixture of IKEA furnishings.
The prices are high and the quality of the presentation and food is very mid level.
I found the rice to be sweet and warm (tokyo express flavour)
We had to ask to order and for our bill after waiting and waiting listening to the blaring Christmas music. That we had to talk over.
We ordered the
Onion cakes
Sunomono
Avocado roll 2x
And our bill was 36 $ for lunch. For the meat eaters out there be prepared for at least an additional 15 $ to your bill.
Our servers were pleasant but not overly helpful or tentative.
We will not be revisiting.

Same owners as Maki Maki! Same rolls as Maki Maki but with some tapas, Vietnamese food & ramen!
We have been here 3 times now and there is definitely a variety of food here that you can get.
Lately, I have been craving ramen! There are 3 types of ramen you can get here. They have a decent broth; creamy bone broth for the shio ramen. Noodles are decent too. I would order their ramen again!
It is also great that they have a variety of other foods in case your dining partners want sushi, sashimi, a bowl of phở or tempura.

Not too bad overall. We had the four season combo with salmon sushi, tuna sushi, smoked salmon sushi and the dynamite roll this combo was good. Although the rice is not the normal rice restaurants use. It’s super sticky and I didn’t like it as much. Also the rice and sushi ratio was off; too much rice. We also had the seared tuna which was our favourite, chicken skewer which was average and the grilled pork cheek which was not good. I would not recommend that dish.

This is an interesting concept — a Vietnamese/​Japanese restaurant. They offer all things that you would typically find in either food genre. Because of this, the menu is large and can be overwhelming. A few of us stopped here after watching a movie. A couple of my friends had been here before and said that this place serves really good phở and the portions are huge.
My friends ordered a couple sushi cones, the chicken phở and the teriyaki chicken bowl. I wasn’t feeling like phở so I ordered the tri-​color sashimi bowl — I should have ordered the phở. Not that my sashimi bowl was bad but it wasn’t great. And for the price of $ 16.95, there were only 6 pieces of sashimi (2 salmon, 2 tuna, 2 red tuna). This was disappointing since the dishes that my friend’s ordered were massive and full of good food and for a much better price. The sashimi was nothing to write home about. It was on the tougher side and the cut of it was odd. On a lighter note, the presentation was pretty and colorful with the added touch of having a small orchid to finish off the dish. The service was also good. No complaints there.
If I were to come back here again, I would stick to the phở or the teriyaki dish. I think that the idea is neat to serve both types of food, but it makes it more challenging to be excellent in both.

Volcano, while easy to miss driving down Gateway Boulevard north — is worth keeping an eye out for.
The owners clearly paid attention to the little details that make a good restaurant great. From solid, comfortable furniture, ample sitting room, and interesting decoration to friendly, helpful staff — Volcano had it all.
The food presentation was nice and the food was delicious. The serving size was Generous. Yes, with a capital G. No one in our party could finish their dish.

Based on the review Volcano either stinks or is amazing.
I walked into this new southside Japanese/​Vietnamese restaurant with trepidation.
Instead of ordering a stomach busting amount of food, I only ordered
1 bowl of rice
6 pieces of Nigiri Sushi
The server didn’t know what the pieces of Nigiri were when questioned on them, and unfortunately there weren’t little pictures/​translations on the table.
She admitted that she was new so I didn’t fault her. She was quite enjoyable and tried hard during the whole meal, but her newness definitely showed through.
(They brought out the wrong 2 pieces at first: no charge on the house though!)
How were my 6 pieces of fishy fish?
The salmon was amazing. The other 5 not bad.
The salmon was so good I ordered an order of Salmon Sashimi (you can get a half order if you ask)
Why did Volcano get 3 stars?
Lots of parking
Clean washrooms
Good food
Good atmosphere
Has a Patio!
Why didn’t it get 5 stars?
A bit pricey for what you’re getting
No specials at all (according to the server)
I’d definitely go back to try it, let’s hope it flourishes and gets better.

Looking for a nice fresh meal after spending the day at the beach. We decided to go and try volcano.
We only decided to try the sushi so I cannot say how the Vietnamese food is here. I have to say that in general the sushi was good but not exceptional. The one thing that made the difference however was the salmon. The salmon nigiri was extremely good and fresh. It was so good we also ordered the salmon sashimi.
The sashimi was a very nice surprise. The slices were extremely thick. About 3 chopsticks wide. What a nice treat. They also have some out door seating which is very nice on a hot day.
The value I would say is a little expensive for what you get. My order for 6 sushi pieces and half an order of sashimi came to $ 25.
All in all it was a good experience and I will come back for the salmon.

Sushi? More like ew-​shi.
We came across Volcano by accident, after discovering the other sushi place we had intended to go to was closed. For the price they charge for the food, the quality and service does not even come close to be worth that much. After ordering, my friend got both of her two dishes first, while I had to wait awkwardly another 5 minutes for my first dish to come. Then another eternity after that for my second dish to come. One normal minute is a million minutes when you are hungry. For a place that promised a 20 minute lunch, I expected better!
Now the rice was… weird. It was sickly sweet tasting and after I ate one of my rolls I could no longer stomach it. It made me feel nauseous and nausea and raw fish is one of the worst combos out there, let me tell you that. The quality of the fish itself was just alright, but the meal was ruined for me by the rice. Blegh.
Service was slow, despite there being maybe 10 people total in the restaurant, and I don’t think our waitress really knew what she was doing. The best part of the experience for me was the candy on the way out of the door. Do not recommend this place for sushi.

Volcano is suffering from an identity crisis and in bad need of a designer. The washrooms were quite odd with bottles of Listerine on the counter. Storage and packages of supplies were stowed about the hallways.
Food wasn’t worth the price. Their rolls didn’t taste too bad but they were poorly rolled and the rice was too warm; things kept falling apart before it hit my mouth.
Servers were nice but a bit on the clueless side. I asked if I could leave my CC with them because I wanted to pay the bill for the group He ended up closing out the tab for us. Even after telling him we were going to order more (dessert) they didn’t come back until we hunted them down.
With menu descriptions such as «ecstasy sauce» and not knowing if it is a Japanese or Vietnamese restaurant I’d opt for one or the other, but elsewhere.

This restaurant is a Japanese/​Vietnamese restaurant. I only tried their Japanese, so this review is based on their service, atmosphere, and sushi. Maybe if I had their phở it would have been a higher rating. We stumbled across volcano because we wanted sushi, Unilocal guided us here.
The food was mediocre at best and definitely not worth what they charge! Their rice had a strange taste and texture for sushi rice and their portions are unfortunately small. Although they say right on the menu how many pieces you get with each roll, I was disappointed when I got a few thin pieces of dynamite roll that only covered half the plate! Definitely not worth the normal amount I would usually pay for a bigger and more scrumptious portion at a different sushi restaurant.
After we had ordered, it took a long time for the first thing to arrive at our table, which ended up being the wrong order. Had our server not repeated our order when she had taken it, I would have attributed it to a simple miscommunication. After that, my two orders of sushi came rather quickly while my friends took another five minutes before she had any food at all! We both ordered two rolls and I had already finished my first one before her second even showed up at out table!
Overall, I was disappointed at the level of service and the quality and quantity of food here. Maybe the Vietnamese cuisine would be more delicious but I would not return for their sushi.

When the wait-​time was long to get into another restaurant nearby on a Saturday night, I decided to give this one a try. They weren’t very busy and so my boyfriend and I were seated right away.
They seem to be a bit overstaffed. As soon as someone had taken our drink order, someone else popped by to take our drink order. When our food arrived, four different people stopped by to quality check and see how it was. It always seemed like there was someone by our table, and the servers were just kinda lurking around. The music they had playing was too low in volume, so it created a pretty hostile vibe… I was always feeling like someone is watching/​listening in on my table. I legitimately didn’t want to talk because I was so self conscious that someone was listening in.
As for the sushi, it was pretty good. It came out in sizeable portions, was tasty, and the presentation was cute (dragon rolls come out as a dragon, etc.).
Once they work out the service side of things, I’m sure this will be a decent spot for sushi. But as of last weekend, the overall experience was a bit awkward. The servers also all wear full length kimonos, which was a bit gimmicky for my liking.

We were actually looking for a different Japanese restaurant when we found Volcano. I was unsure… There’s been some nasty reviews for this place.
We had a near perfect experience, from the rich, flavorful tea to the clean and but quirky washrooms, which have a pretty laser radio thingy in the mirror and stalls the size of airplane bathrooms.
We split a bento box, had a couple salads and sashimi, and all were delicious. The sashimi was sooooo fresh. It was well chilled and like silk on my tongue, exactly how I like it.
Service was fantastic! Paige was friendly and efficient. Our tea and water stayed filled. It was just one of those dining experiences where everything went right. We’ll be back.

Volcano is in a great location for those living south of Whyte Avenue-​easily accessible by Calgary Trail and Gateway Boulevard, the restaurant offers both Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine in a well-​decorated, spacious building. The combination of Asian flavour offerings is unusual but not unheard-​of in our city, where one can get Korean short ribs at many Japanese restaurants, or enjoy a Pad Thai served up alongside a Curry Laksa.
I recently attended the grand opening, where I was greeted with a glass of prosecco and given a chance to grab a seat at one of the many tables. The food samplings were laid out in platters: sushi, sashimi, and maki on one side of the table, short ribs, spring rolls, and pork chops on the other. The divide was interesting but not unwelcome-it’s nice to be able to pair cool raw fish with a cooked item or two.
I took a little bit of everything, grabbed a sake caesar, and sat down with my plate of goodies. Everything was good, although the short ribs will always come up tops for me. The tuna sashimi was light and fluffy, as it should be, and the unagi maki was filled with flavour.
I haven’t had a chance to try the full menu yet, but I’d rate Volcano as a tasty, reliable Japanese/​Vietnamese restaurant based on my experience at the grand opening.
The prices are in the mid– to high-​range for a sushi restaurant, so I’d estimate prices to be around $ 40 – 50 per person for sushi (depending on how much you can eat) and around $ 15 – 20 per person for Vietnamese. They also offer a variety of Western and Chinese dishes, including brunch omelettes and chicken stir fry.

Great food, service needs a little improvement for groups.
We had reservations for a party of ten so we were in the back room. Everything was actually quite nice, impressive, and well laid out. Here are a few problems we encountered which is why I am giving them a three star rating:
1. For a group of ten people, I wish we were given a more experienced server who will be able to handle the party.
a. Four bowls of phở were ordered (let’s call our friends E, B, K, & J), only two arrived — for E & B. K & J both followed up on their orders after realizing that E & B and pretty much everyone had their respective orders. Took a long while for K’s soup to arrive. J’s order never came — and he was the birthday celebrant. Since the portions were big on some food items, he and his girlfriend split her order.
b. K, from the previous point actually had sushi ordered with his soup. It also never came despite being followed up on and confirmed previously before and after his bowl of phở arrived.
c. My bf and I also had a few problems with our order: We had to follow up on the beef teriyaki we ordered which was fine, and I understand it usually takes longer. However, after following up with a server helping ours (as we had already finished the rest of our food), I confirmed my suspicions that the order hadn’t gone through when I saw the second server bring the teriyaki and our server sent her away saying it wasn’t for our table. Hmm, so we again waited until she eventually came back. Also, we ordered a large tuna tataki, and received a small tuna tataki instead — we did not realize it until we got our bill.
Needless to say, our server was overwhelmed. She was so nice, and I liked her. She would have been great if it was a smaller group.
2. Although it looked nice, I think they should rethink their curtains in the rooms. The servers had their hands full with our food so they had to go blindly into the room with the curtain covering their eyes/​face because it was in the way. In addition, there is a chance (since they can’t see) that the curtain can get into the food before being served on the table. Ew.
3. Stalls in the women’s washrooms are incredibly tiny. Loved the mouthwash idea though, I thought that was awesome!
4. The only problem I had with the food was how thinly the beef tataki was sliced. I have eaten at a lot of Japanese places, and I never had difficulty eating beef tataki as much as I had here. It was so thin that it breaks off and sticks to the plate. Even the bf who rarely complains about his food thought it was very disappointing. Which was sad, because it was one of our favourite dishes and we did not get to enjoy it.
Despite all this, I actually really liked what they did with the place. Everyone was very warm and friendly also. Just a few tweaks :) We will definitely come back, just with a smaller party.